Jobs of the future, Part Six: the Environmental Defender

I’ve talked about how the financial system can either aid or abet the challenge of climate change – so much so that I even wrote a book about it called Digital for Good. This means that there is a future where someone has to work to protect our environment who I call the Environmental Defender.

Their role will cover multiple aspects, from checking whether governments and financial institutions are investing wisely in developing new energy projects to monitoring companies and citizens to ensure they are environmentally friendly.

The question would be: who funds these Environmental Defenders? NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and charities? People who care about the future of our planet? The World Bank and United Nations?

My contention would be that Environmental Defenders would actually be funded by banks, manufacturers and energy companies. They want the Environmental Defender logo on their product, as that’s what citizens, customers and consumers care about. We are already half-way there – just look at the energy stamp on your house if you try to sell it – but that energy stamp will apply to everything.

The thing is that the Environmental Defender will not just be focused upon inspecting and monitoring projects and investments. They will also be looking at outputs and forward-focused developments, such as rewilding. I’m sure you know what that is but, just in case you don’t:

Rewilding is a form of ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes. It differs from other forms of ecological restoration in that rewilding aspires to reduce human influence on ecosystems.

Wikipedia

Sophie Deen’s series around jobs of the future focuses this role down to being a specific Rewilding Strategist, but I think it is broader. Rewilding is one part of being an environmental defender. The other parts are ensuring that the whole system invests and develops wisely to protect the future of our planet. From banks funding fossil fuel firms to governments launching projects that could affect biodiversity, we need boards of advisors and mentors that censure such activities.

Nevertheless, let’s come back to Sophie’s view. What’s a rewilding strategist? She uses the example of the tragedy that happened at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986. Untouched ever since, the 2,600 km² Exclusion Zone has inadvertently become Europe’s largest wildlife sanctuary. The result is that wildlife thrives without human interference and over sixty rare species have returned to the region, some of which were thought extinct. On top of this, wildlife populations surged to levels higher than in national parks.

I saw the same thing recently when visiting South Korea. I went to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. It was fascinating. At the end of the 1950s Korean War, the country was split in half, with a demarcation line that kind of followed the central Han River. Known as the 38th parallel, the border line is separated by two kilometres North and South (four kilometres in total). Add to this that the countries then planted over four million landmines to ensure no-one crossed the line, and you find an area that no-one ever tries to cross.

The result?

A 150-mile (240 km) area that runs across the Korean Peninsula from the mouth of the Han River to south of Kosŏng, North Korea, where wildlife and flora and fauna thrive in abundance.

It reminded me of the moment in the wonderful BBC series about Mammals, where Sir David Attenborough discussed how animals were so intelligent that they took over a landmine area in India because they knew no humans would go there.

For Indian wolves, their keen sense of smell enables them to seek refuge in the one place humans don’t go – abandoned minefields left over from a war between Israel and Syria. Protected by the deadly mines, this unusual sanctuary has given the wolves a safe place to rear their young.

This leads to the Environmental Defender’s job and, specifically, what a Rewilding Strategist would do. Rather than leaving the future of the world to wars, landmines, companies, governments, financial institutions and energy firms … imagine what we could do if we planned it all.

In fact, don’t imagine. Just do it. After all, by 2050, 68% of the world’s population is predicted to live in urban areas. Climate change will push cities to radically rethink green spaces, and the challenge of biodiversity loss will be a top global priority.

What would be your vision of 2050?

You wake up to birdsong, not traffic. Streets are car-free, filled with children playing and wildlife roaming. Skyscrapers are vertical forests, cleaning the air and housing diverse ecosystems. Rivers, once buried under concrete, now flow freely, teeming with fish. Bees, butterflies and other lovely things are all around.

This isn’t a far-off utopia.

This is the job of the Environmental Defender and Rewilding Strategist. Their job? To work out how metropolises, cities and nature coexist; how to bring the wild back into urban spaces; and planning for the forests of the future.

According to Sarah, the Rewilding Strategist specifically focuses upon:

• the return of urban areas to nature
• balancing the ecosystems in cities
• designing wildlife corridors and habitats
• educating communities on coexistence with nature

But, more than this, they would work with the Environmental Defender to ensure that all investment projects – whether governmental, financial or commercial – lived up to the needs of the future generations. That’s where technology can play a part. If we could link fintech with farmtech, medtech, lifetech and more, then we could plan better as to where to invest and, more importantly, deinvest.